Sowing seeds for a community garden

The Sydni Centre has received £3,000 from Warwickshire County Council’s Warwick area committee and £2,000 from Leamington town council to help create the garden. They are appealing for volunteers to help with digging, litter picking, planting and painting on Saturday March 17 from 10am to 4pm, and at the same times on Saturday April 14 and May 5.

Sydni Centre volunteer and town councillor Gurpreet Dulay (Lab, Willes) helped secure the grants. He said: “We want it to be a flourishing floral area where people can walk, sit down and study in the summer.”

Volunteers from Warwick University have already built raised beds for people to plant flowers. The centre is also planning to put up birdwatching and butterfly boards, and children from Sydenham Primary School have taken part in a competition to design artwork, with the winners’ names to be announced next week.

Centre manager Kate Cliffe said: “We thought it would be a fantastic way to involve the local community and help them take ownership of a corner of Sydenham.”